A global public good is a good that has the three following properties:
- It is non-rivalrous. Consumption of this good by anyone does not reduce the quantity available to other agents.
- It is non-excludable. It is impossible to prevent anyone from consuming that good.
- It is available worldwide.
This concept is an extension of American economist Paul Samuelson's notion of public goods to the economics of globalisation.
The theoretical concept of public goods does not distinguish with regard to the geographical region in which a good may be produced or consumed. However some theorists, such as Inge Kaul, use the term global public good to mean a public good which is non-rival and non-excludable throughout the whole world, as opposed to a public good which exists in just one national area. Knowledge is a canonical example of a global public good. In some academic literature it has become associated with the concept of a common heritage of mankind.
The stability of the UK's financial system has been described as a global public good by the IMF due to the systems's 'size and role ... in global intermediation puts it in a position to originate and transmit shocks to the global financial system, but also to dampen them'.
Famous quotes containing the words global and/or public:
“Ours is a brand—new world of allatonceness. “Time” has ceased, “space” has vanished. We now live in a global village ... a simultaneous happening.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The average Kentuckian may appear a bit confused in his knowledge of history, but he is firmly certain about current politics. Kentucky cannot claim first place in political importance, but it tops the list in its keen enjoyment of politics for its own sake. It takes the average Kentuckian only a matter of moments to dispose of the weather and personal helath, but he never tires of a political discussion.”
—For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)